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DAVID HOLMGREN REVISED EDITION Essence of was created as an accessible introduction to both LAND BUILDING the permaculture concept and the principles. Much of the frst edition was &NATURE extracted directly from my book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways STEWARDSHIP Beyond ,whichprovidesamuchmorein-depthdiscussionof these topics. This second edition has not changed substantially, but it contains some updates refecting changes in society over the 19 years since it was originally published, as well as further clarifcation of some of the LAND TENURE TOOLS & & COMMUNITY principles. TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE Ethics and Design WHAT IS PERMACULTURE? Principles Bill Mollison and I coined the word ‘permaculture’ in the mid-1970s to describe ‘an integrated, evolving system of perennial or self-perpetuating plant and animal species useful to man[kind].’ 1

FINANCES EDUCATION A more current defnition of permaculture, refecting the expansion of focus & ECONOMICS & CULTURE implicit in Permaculture One, is: Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and HEALTH & SPIRITUAL relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of , WELL-BEING fbre and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings and the ways in which they organise themselves are central to permaculture: the original permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture has evolved to one of permanent or sustainable THE PERMACULTURE FLOWER culture. BIOLOGICAL FIELD BUILT FIELD BEHAVIOURAL FIELD THE DESIGN SYSTEM LAND & NATURE BUILDING EDUCATION & CULTURE FINANCE & ECONOMICS For many people, myself included, the above conception of permaculture is so STEWARDSHIP Passive solar design Home schooling Ethical investment & Fair Trade Bio-intensive gardening Natural construction materials Steiner/Waldorf education Local and regional currencies global in its scope that its usefulness is reduced. More precisely, I see perma‐ Water harvesting & reuse Reading landscapes Carpooling, ride sharing & Seed saving Biotechture Participatory arts & music car share culture as the use of systems thinking and design principles to provide the Organic agriculture Disaster resistant construction Social Ecology Farmers markets & Community Biodynamics Owner building Action Research Supported Agriculture (CSA) organising framework for implementing the above vision. Permaculture draws Natural farming Pattern language Transition culture WWOOFing & similar networks together the diverse ideas, skills and ways of living that need to be redis‐ Keyline water harvesting Voluntary simplicity Tradable Energy Quotas TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY Holistic Rangeland Life Cycle Analysis & covered and developed to provide for our needs, whilst increasing the natural Management Reuse & creative recycling HEALTH & EMERGY accounting Natural Sequence Farming Hand tools SPIRITUAL WELLBEING Frugal hedonism capital for future generations. Agroforestry Bicycles and electric bikes Home birth & breastfeeding LAND TENURE & COMMUNITY Nature-based forestry Wood stoves Complementary & In this more limited but important sense, permaculture is not the landscape, or Integrated aquaculture Fuels from organic wholistic medicine GOVERNANCE Wild harvesting & hunting Wood gasifcation Yoga, Tai Chi & other Cooperatives & body corporates even the skills of organic gardening, regenerative farming, energy efcient Gleaning Bio-char from forest wastes body/mind/spirit disciplines & eco-villages Co-generation Spirit of place, indigenous Native Title & traditional rights building or eco-village development. Rather, it can be used to design, Micro-hydro & wind cultural revival Open space technology & Energy storage Dying with dignity consensus decision making 1 Transition engineering Sociocracy establish, manage and improve these and all other eforts made by individuals, IMPEDIMENTS TO THE SPREAD OF PERMACULTURE households and communities towards a sustainable future. There are many reasons why ecological development solutions refecting The ‘Permaculture Flower’ (depicted inside the front cover) shows the key permaculture design principles have not had a greater impact over the last few domains that require transformation to create a sustainable culture. Histor‐ decades. These reasons include: ically, permaculture has focused on ‘Land and nature stewardship’ as both a •theprevailingscientifccultureofreductionismthatiscautious,ifnot source for, and an application of, ethics and design principles. Those hostile, to holistic methods of inquiry principles are now being applied to other domains dealing with physical and •thedominantcultureofconsumerism,drivenbydysfunctional energetic , as well as human organisation (often called ‘invisible economic measures of progress structures’ in permaculture teaching). The spiral path beginning with ethics •political,economicandsocialelites(bothglobalandlocal)thatstandto and principles suggests a knitting together of these domains, initially at the lose infuence and power, through the adoption of local autonomy and personal and the local level, and then proceeding to the collective and global self-reliance. level. Some of the diverse design systems and solutions relevant to each domain are listed under the Biological, Built and Behavioural felds, which I These and related impediments express themselves diferently in diferent used in RetroSuburbia (2018) to simplify the domains framework of the societies and contexts. Permaculture Flower. For the global majority of four billion or so for whom the cost of basic needs is high relative to real income, there are extremely limited opportunities to THE NETWORK become more self-reliant. The depletion of local natural resources (through Permaculture is also a network of individuals and groups spreading perma‐ population pressure, innovation in extraction technology, ethnic and culture design solutions in both rich and poor countries throughout the globe. migratory confict, and government and corporate exploitation) has reduced Until recently, largely unrecognised in academia and unsupported by the productivity and viability of traditional sustainable systems. At the same government or business, permaculture activists are contributing to a more time, farm and factory labour in the monetary economy has increased sustainable future by reorganising their lives and work around permaculture measured income, but failed to fully compensate for declining household and design principles. They are creating small local changes that directly and community non-monetary economy (and wellbeing). The lure of opportunities indirectly infuence organic agriculture, , intentional in the rapidly growing cities has enticed country folk to move to the city. This community design and other expressions of what is called ‘sustainable devel‐ process is as old as the English folk tale about Dick Wittington who went to opment’ (even if that term is problematic). London in the 14th century as a poor orphan because he thought the streets Most of the people involved in this network have completed a Permaculture were paved with gold. Further, government provision of health, education, and Design Course (PDC). For over 30 years this has been the prime vehicle for other services has been slashed by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and permaculture inspiration and training worldwide, acting as a social glue World Bank-imposed structural adjustment. This failed system of economic bonding participants to such an extent that the worldwide network could be and social development is extraordinary in its ubiquity and repetition. described as a social movement. A curriculum was codifed in 1984, but the The same system of power that extracts and exploits the less powerful, divergent evolution of form and content, as presented by diferent perma‐ soothes the billion or so middle class people, mostly in the North, into culture teachers, has produced varied and localised experiences and under‐ complacency with low costs, relative to average incomes, of food, water, standings of permaculture. energy and derived goods. This failure of global markets to transmit signals about resource depletion and environmental degradation has insulated 2 3 consumers from the need to develop more self-reliant lifestyles, and disabled Although permaculture is a conceptual framework with its roots in ecological the drive for public policies to assist these necessary adaptations. The food science and systems thinking, its grassroots-spread in many diferent cultures of new and cheap consumer goods has stimulated consumption to a point of and contexts demonstrates its potential to contribute to the evolution of a super-saturation, while at the same time measures of social capital and popular culture of sustainability, through the adoption of practical and wellbeing continue to fall from the 1970s’ peaks. empowering solutions. Since the Global Financial Crisis more than a decade ago, the middle class in FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS long-afuent countries has been shrinking, while disparities of wealth have increased and the numbers of people who have faith that their children will be Permaculture is founded on some fundamental assumptions that are critical to better of than themselves is collapsing. Populist right wing governments have both understanding and evaluating it. The assumptions on which perma‐ been elected in an increasing number of long-afuent nations as neo-liberal culture was originally based are worth repeating: notions of globalisation are crumbling. •Humans,althoughunusualwithinthenaturalworld,aresubjecttothe This crisis of faith in the economic and political order is one aspect of the same scientifc (energy) laws that govern the material universe, unfolding global crisis where geopolitical confict, radically changing and including the evolution of life. chaotic climate, biodiversity collapse, and resource depletion create a •Thetappingoffossilfuelsduringtheindustrialeraistheprimarycause convergence of apparently unrelated crises. of the spectacular explosion in human numbers, technology and every Policy commitment to economic growth at all costs, and the powerful other novel feature of modern society. corporate and government interests that stand to lose power from a low- •Theenvironmentalcrisisisrealandofamagnitudethatwilltransform energy transition, highlight the radical political nature of permaculture. modern global industrial society beyond recognition. In the process, the wellbeing, and even survival, of the world’s expanding population is FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITIES RATHER THAN OBSTACLES directly threatened. While permaculture activists are acutely aware of these impediments, perma‐ •Theongoingimpactsofglobalindustrialsocietyandhumannumbers culture strategies focus on opportunities rather than obstacles. In helping the on the world’s wondrous biodiversity will be far greater than the transition from ignorant consumption to responsible production, permaculture massive changes of the last few hundred years. builds on a culture of self-reliance and community values, as well as a range •Thedepletionoffossilfuelswithinafewgenerationswillseeagradual of conceptual and practical skills, that have persisted despite the ravages of return of system design principles, fundamental to nature and pre- afuence. In a permaculture project, the identifcation of these invisible industrial societies dependent on renewable energy and resources – resources is as important as the evaluation of biophysical and material even if the specifc forms of those systems will refect unique and local resources. circumstances. While sustainable production (of food and other resources) remains the prime Thus permaculture is based on an overall assumption of progressively objective of permaculture strategies, it can be argued that permaculture has reducing energy and resource consumption, and an inevitable reduction in been more efective at pioneering . Rather than weak human numbers. I call this the ‘energy descent future’ to emphasise the strategies encouraging green consumer purchasing, permaculture addresses primacy of energy in human destiny.3 This phrase is a less negative, but the issues by reintegrating and contracting the production/consumption cycle descriptive, alternative to what some call ‘collapse’, ‘contraction’, ‘decay’ or around the focal point of the active individual, nested within a household and ‘die-of’. The energy descent future can be visualised as the gentle descent a local community.2 4 5 after an exhilarating balloon fight that returns us to the Earth, our home. Of remaining value of a failing civilisation for the future. While Odum’s vision of a course, that Earth has been transformed by humanity’s ‘energy ascent’, ‘prosperous way down’7 for humanity looks less likely, permaculture has making the future as challenging and novel as any period in history. In sharpened the tools that we need for a great diversity of energy descent accepting such a future as inevitable, we can choose creative adaptation over journeys that await us and our descendants. fearful acquisitiveness or cavalier disregard. The conceptual underpinning of these assumptions arises from many sources, PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES but I recognise a clear and special debt to the work of American ecologist THE VALUE AND USE OF PRINCIPLES Howard Odum.4 The ongoing infuence of Odum’s work on the evolution of my Permaculture principles are based on the idea that generalised principles can own ideas is made explicit in Permaculture: Principles and pathways beyond be derived from the study of the natural world and pre-industrial sustainable sustainability,aswellasarticlesinDavid Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978- societies, and that they will be universally applicable to fast-track the 2018.5 development of regenerative use of land and resources, whether in a context of ecological and material abundance or one of deprivation. CURRENT CONTEXT The process of providing for people’s needs within ecological limits requires a The early onset of climate chaos from constantly rising greenhouse gas cultural revolution. We have little time to achieve this revolution. Inevitably, a emissions is capturing media and public attention, while depletion of revolution is fraught with many confusions, false leads, risks and inefciencies. resources (especially oil) has slipped into the background. This is despite the Given this historical context, the idea of a simple set of guiding principles that peaking of conventional oil production (in 2008), the massive environmental have wide, even universal, application is attractive. impact (and fnancial losses) of unconventional oil extraction, and confict and Permaculture principles are brief statements or slogans that can be economic collapse in oil exporting nations. Meanwhile techno-optimism is remembered as a checklist when considering the inevitably complex options being bolstered by the rapid rollout of solar and wind power, although that for designing ecological support systems. These principles are universal, but growth is not keeping up with growing global energy demand; at the time of the methods that express them will vary greatly according to place and writing, 84% of which continues to come from fossil fuels. situation. They are also applicable to personal, economic, social and political On the other hand, my hopes around the turn of the millennium that either the reorganisation, as illustrated in the Permaculture Flower, although the range of peak of conventional oil and/or defation of the fnancial bubbles that underpin strategies and techniques that refect the principles in each domain is still the growth-oriented world economy would force a restructuring to adapt to evolving. energy descent realities have faded.6 It currently seems the escalating climate emergency is the front runner for such a crunch and restructure. However, ETHICS OF PERMACULTURE mainstream proposals for a way forward assume a green continuation of Ethics act as constraints on survival instincts and other personal and social energy ascent and don’t acknowledge that a world of less is coming whether constructs of self-interest that tend to drive human behaviour. They are cultural we like it or not. mechanisms for more enlightened self-interest, a more inclusive view of who Despite this bleak context, action informed by permaculture ethics and design and what constitutes ‘us’, and a longer-term understanding of good and bad principles around the world continues to show how the problem can become outcomes. the solution if we are prepared to radically change how we think and behave. The greater the power of human civilisation (due to energy availability), and the These thinking tools remain powerful in helping us be resilient, as well as greater the concentration and scale of power within society, the more critical understanding and contributing to the important task of salvaging the ethics become in ensuring long-term cultural, and even biological, survival. 6 7 This ecologically functional view of ethics makes them central in the DESIGN PRINCIPLES development of a culture for energy descent. The scientifc foundation for permaculture design principles lies within the Like design principles, ethical principles were not explicitly listed in early perma‐ modern science of ecology, and more specifcally within the branch of ecology culture literature. Since the development of the Permaculture Design Course, called ‘systems ecology’. Other intellectual disciplines, especially landscape ethics have generally been covered by three broad maxims or principles: geography and ethno-biology, have contributed concepts that have been adapted to design principles.

Earth care – rebuild nature’s capital Fundamentally, permaculture principles arise from a way of perceiving the world that is often described as ‘systems thinking’ and ‘design thinking’. Apart from the ecological energetics of Howard Odum, the infuence of systems People care – nurture self, kin and community thinking in my development of permaculture and its design principles has not come through extensive study of the literature. Rather, it has been through an Fair share – set limits to consumption and osmotic absorption of ideas in the cultural aether that strike a chord with my reproduction, and redistribute surplus own experience in permaculture design. Further, I believe many of the abstract insights of systems thinking have more easily understood parallels in the These statements of ethics were distilled from research into community ethics, stories and myths of indigenous cultures and, to a lesser extent, in the as adopted by older religious cultures and modern co-operative groups. The knowledge of all people still connected to land and nature. third ethic, and even the second, can be seen as derived from the frst. Permaculture principles and ethics may be observed operating all around us. The ethics continue to be taught and used as simple and relatively unques‐ Iarguethattheirabsence,orapparentcontradictionbymodernindustrial tioned ethical foundations for permaculture design within the movement and culture, does not invalidate their universal relevance to the descent into a low- the wider ‘global nation’ of likeminded people. More broadly, these ethics can energy future. be seen as common to all traditional cultures that have connected people to Most people will relate to and make use of permaculture as a toolkit of land and nature throughout history. strategies, techniques and examples, however these are specifc to each This focus in permaculture on learning from indigenous cultures stems from particular system’s scale, cultural and ecological context, and repertoire of these cultures having existed in relative balance with their environment and skills and experience of those involved. To provide guidance in choosing and surviving for longer than any of our more recent experiments in civilisation.8 developing the useful applications, principles are needed to embody more general systems design concepts in language accessible to ordinary people. Of course, in our attempt to live an ethical life, we should not ignore the teachings of the great spiritual and philosophical traditions of literate civili‐ Iorganisethediversityofpermaculturethinkingundertwelvedesignprinciples. sations, or the great thinkers of the scientifc enlightenment and of current My set of design principles varies signifcantly from those used by many other times. But in the long transition to a regenerative low-energy culture we need permaculture authors and teachers. Some of this is simply a matter of emphasis to consider, and attempt to understand, a broader canvas of values and and organisation; in a few cases it may indicate diference of substance. This concepts than those delivered to us by recent cultural history.9 is not surprising, given the new and still-emerging nature of permaculture. The format of each of these principles is a positive action statement and an icon. The icon acts as a graphical reminder, encoding some fundamental aspect or example of the principle. A traditional proverb is also associated with each principle, emphasising the negative or cautionary aspect of the principle. 8 9 Each principle can be thought of as a door into the labyrinth of systems Although this principle is clearly addressed to our own behaviour, it also thinking. Any example used to illustrate one principle will also embody others, applies to our design of systems to facilitate learning by animals and even so the principles are simply thinking tools to assist us in identifying, designing plants. Animals in free range systems can use their native intelligence to satisfy and evolving design solutions. their food and other needs, maintain awareness of predators and interact with their kind. Plants growing in healthy soil have roots that actively explore for PRINCIPLE 1 water and nutrients, and develop relationships and exchanges with benefcial OBSERVE AND INTERACT microorganisms, and through them, other plants. ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ In ensuring houses are passively heated or cooled, monitoring and In nature animals survive and thrive by constantly observing (using diferent management are part of the equation: passive solar requires active humans! senses) and interacting with their environment. In traditional societies, children For instance, we need to know when to open and close curtains, doors and learned to become competent adults by observing and interacting in windows according to local conditions and the layout of the house. environments shaped by kin and culture. Observe and interact also reminds us to consider issues in a more wholistic In the modern world, formal education has replaced self-directed observation context. The permaculture aphorism ‘the problem is the solution’ reminds us to a signifcant degree, and we have become separated from interactions, that playful thought about an issue can help us see creative ways to bypass which are now mediated through technology and monetary transactions. In obstacles – or even how we can learn to love what we previously hated. the process of gaining new technological skills and sophistication, we have

lost much of our innate capacity to learn and look after ourselves, let alone PRINCIPLE 2 design appropriate responses to emerging challenges. CATCH AND STORE ENERGY Good design depends on a free and harmonious relationship between nature ‘Make hay while the sun shines’

and people, in which careful observation and thoughtful interaction provide the We live in a world of unprecedented wealth resulting from the harvesting of the design inspiration, repertoire and patterns. Design should not be generated in enormous storages of fossil fuels created by the Earth over billions of years. isolation, but through continuous and reciprocal interaction with the subject. The adverse impacts of this over-harvesting will continue to show up as Permaculture designers use careful observation and thoughtful interaction to available fossil fuels decline. In fnancial language, we have been living by make efective use of human capabilities, reduce dependence on non‐ consuming global capital in a reckless manner that would send any business renewable energy, and consciously and continuously develop systems of land bankrupt. We need to learn how to save and reinvest most of the wealth that use and living that can sustain people through the era of energy descent. we are currently consuming or wasting, so that our children and descendants ‘Reading the Landscape’ to understand the pre-existing and often subtle but might have a reasonable life. The ethical foundation for this principle could persistent patterns created by nature and ancestral use of the land, is the hardly be clearer. foundation of permaculture design. Designs should emerge from what already Through most of human history, the limited and episodic availability of food, exists, rather than be an imposition on the land. With appropriate observation fuel, and other useful resources was recognised in the phrase ‘feast or and interaction, we realise that nowhere is a blank slate for our designs. famine’. In the modern world a steady supply of essential needs is directly and Everywhere has a history, and the proverb ‘Beauty is in the eye of the indirectly underpinned by abundant fossil fuel. This has led us to have less beholder’remindsusthattheprocessofobservinginfuencesreality,andthat concern for storages, savings or even planning for the future. Ironically, we must always be circumspect about absolute truths and values. afuence has made us less able to think for the long term. 10 11 Catch and store energy highlights the need and opportunity take advantage The proverb ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ reminds us that we have limited of surplus energy, food and other resources when they are available – to invest time to catch and store energy before seasonal or episodic abundance in systems that will sustain us and our descendants through times of scarcity dissipates. Likewise, the icon of sunshine captured in a bottle suggests the and disruption. preserving of seasonal surplus: averypracticalapplicationofthisprinciple.It Inappropriate concepts of wealth have led us to ignore opportunities to also refects the basic lesson of biological science: all life is directly or indirectly capture local fows of both renewable and non-renewable forms of energy. dependent on the solar energy captured and stored by green plants through Identifying and acting on these opportunities can provide the energy with the process of photosynthesis. which we can rebuild natural and human capital. Common but ephemeral sources of energy that permaculture designers aim to catch include: PRINCIPLE 3 OBTAIN A YIELD •sun,windandrunofwaterfows ‘You can’t work on an empty stomach’ •wastedresourcesfromagricultural,industrialandcommercialactivities •knowledgeandskillsofolderpeople. The previous principle focused our attention on the need to use existing wealth to make long-term investments in natural capital. But there is no point in Important storages of future value that permaculture designers invest in attempting to plant a forest for the grandchildren if we haven’t got enough to include: eat today. •fertilesoilwithhighhumuscontent Without immediate and truly useful yields, whatever we design and develop •perennialvegetationsystems,especiallytreesthatyieldfoodandother will tend to wither, while elements that generate immediate yields will useful resources proliferate. Whether we attribute it to nature, market forces or human greed, •seedbanksandarboretaofusefulspeciesandvarieties systems that most efectively obtain a yield, and use it most efectively to meet •waterbodiesandtanks the needs of survival, tend to prevail over alternatives.10 •passivesolarbuildings •librariesandinformationsystems. Ayield,proftorincomefunctionsasarewardthatencourages,maintains and/or replicates the system that generated the yield. In this way, successful Over time these storages of energy will help sustain modest systems, once the systems spread. In systems language these rewards are called ‘positive fow of unsustainable energy from fossil fuels is spent or unavailable. feedback loops’ that amplify the original process or signal. If we are serious We can also think of the collective experience, know-how, technology and about sustainable design solutions, then we must be aiming for rewards that software derived from generations of industrial afuence as a huge store of encourage success, growth and replication of those solutions. wealth that can be redeployed to help create new forms of capital, appropriate While this may be self-evident to farmers and businesspeople, in modern for energy descent. Much of the optimism about sustainability relates to the afuent society, many people and organisations are subsidised by net wealth application of technology and innovation. Permaculture strategies make use from others and by the expenditure of vast stocks of capital, most of it derived of these opportunities while maintaining a healthy scepticism based on the from fossil fuels. This has led to dysfunction and cosmetic environments premise that technological innovation is often a ‘Trojan horse’, recreating replacing functional and productive ones. The original permaculture vision problems in new forms. Apart from using technology judiciously to build new promoted by Bill Mollison, of urban landscapes full of food and other useful capital assets, technological innovation is itself a storage of wealth that will plants rather than useless ornamentals, provides an antidote to this dysfunc‐ progressively depreciate during energy descent, albeit at a slower rate than tional aspect of our culture. physical assets and infrastructure. 12 13 Even in poorer countries, the unexamined aim of the majority of development necessary, punish behaviour that would threaten or destabilise the system. projects is to enable people to ‘escape’ the need to maintain functional and This negative feedback is essential in all systems to maintain health and productive environments, by full participation in the monetary economy where balance. Culling excess plant growth in the garden is often necessary, even ‘obtaining a yield’ is reduced to a narrow and destructive process dictated by though it may seem ruthless from another perspective. However, our goal as the forces of the global economy. The nouveau riche model of success – in designers should be to create plant guilds and animal associations that are which the functional and practical are banished – needs to be replaced with more harmonious and self-regulating to reduce our workload in activities such honest acknowledgement of sources of afuence and real measures of as weeding. Often the pathway to those harmonious guilds requires some success. Generations of wage and salary culture in more developed countries culling that tips a balance point – in this way the garden is ‘accepting the under both capitalist and socialist models have led to an extraordinary (negative) feedback’. The fact that we tend to see negative feedback as bad dislocation between productive activity and the sources of our sustenance. is itself a refection of a culture out of balance. Yields are not limited to food and other useful harvests. In many rich countries Self-maintaining and regulating systems might be thought of as the ‘Holy Grail’ like Australia, houses are empty most of the time with people commuting to of permaculture: an ideal that we strive for but might never fully realise. We can work, school and recreation. Home-based lifestyles and working from home go a long way towards achieving it by applying the principles of integration and are strategies to obtain a greater yield from that most expensive of assets diversity (see Principles 8 and 10), but it is also fostered by making each (rather than assuming that rising property values are an automatic yield that element in a system self-reliant and energy efcient. A system composed of will continue in the future). self-reliant elements is more robust to disturbance. Use of tough, semi-wild In assisting middle class urban Australians facing the challenge of a more self- and self-reproducing crop varieties and livestock breeds, instead of highly reliant rural lifestyle, I have explained that it’s like becoming a businessperson. bred and dependent ones, is a classic permaculture strategy that exemplifes Although the ‘economic rationalism’ of recent decades has been largely this principle. dysfunctional it did include a kernel of truth, reviving awareness of the need for On a larger scale, self-reliant farmers were once recognised as the basis of a all systems to be designed to be productive in some way. We need to redefne strong and independent country. Today’s globalised economies make for how we obtain a yield using ‘ecological rationalism’. greater instability, where efects can cascade around the world. Rebuilding self-reliance at both the element and system level increases resilience. In the PRINCIPLE 4 energy descent world, self-reliance will become more valued as capacity for APPLY SELF-REGULATION AND ACCEPT FEEDBACK high and continuous input declines and economies of scale and specialisation ‘The sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the seventh generation’ reduce. Traditional societies recognised that the efects of external negative feedback Principles 2 and 3 involve positive feedback to support growth and controls are often slow to emerge. People needed explanations and warnings, development, but uncontrolled cellular growth in our bodies is called cancer, such as ‘The sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the seventh while positive feedback through a sound system creates an intolerable noise generation’ and the laws of karma. In modern society, we take for granted an that can damage the system. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback deals enormous degree of dependence on large-scale, often remote, systems for with self-regulatory aspects of permaculture design that limit or discourage provision of our needs, while expecting a huge degree of freedom in what we inappropriate growth or behaviour. do without external control. Our whole society is like a teenager who wants to In nature, predators maintain balance when they hunt, kill and eat a proportion have it all, and have it now, without consequences. Even in more traditional of prey animals, while in society the law works to regulate and, where 14 15 communities, older taboos and controls have lost much of their power, or are Permaculture design makes the best use of renewable, natural resources to no longer ecologically functional due to changes in the environment, manage and maintain yields, even if some non-renewable resources are population density and technology. needed to establish systems. One of the challenges of is the development of behaviour For example, all forests generate surplus low-value wood as a by-product of and culture that is more attuned to feedback signals from nature, to prevent sustainable management. When properly seasoned, this by-product can be overexploitation. Negative feedback needs to be well-targeted and strong used as a local fuel source for heating and cooking in well-designed stoves. In enough to bring about corrective change, but not so strong that it damages the same way that wood does not meet all criteria we might want from a fuel, further development of the system. For example, rainwater collection and use herbal medicine might not provide a complete pharmacopeia, but we can in a house brings awareness of limits to both yield and quality. If a wood stove successfully treat many ailments with botanical medicines that are locally fue produces a smoky taste to water, this negative feedback encourages grown and processed with little or no fossil fuel. By doing so, we avoid many corrective action. The common aim of designing sustainable systems with zero adverse side efects from centralised drug production, increase our respect for hazard from negative feedback is like trying to raise children without exposure nature, and feel more confdent in maintaining our own health. to immunological and accident hazards: it leads to more serious hazards in the Renewable services are those we gain from plants, animals and living soil and future. The open acceptance of hazards from negative feedback must be water, without them being consumed. For example, when we use a tree for constrained by ethics and be primarily applied to ourselves, families and wood, we are using a renewable resource, but when we use a tree for shade communities (in that order), rather than outsourcing regulation to government and shelter, we gain benefts from the living tree that are non-consuming and as occurs in the monetary economy. require no harvesting energy. This simple understanding is obvious yet The Gaia hypothesis11 of the earth as a self-regulating system, analogous to a powerful in redesigning systems in which simple functions have become living organism, makes the whole earth a suitable image to represent this dependent on non-renewable and unsustainable resource use. principle. Scientifc evidence of the Earth’s remarkable homeostasis over As well as making use of non-consuming natural services to minimise our hundreds of millions of years highlights the Earth as the archetypical self-reg‐ consumptive demands on resources, permaculture design emphasises ulating whole system, which stimulates the evolution, and nurtures the harmonious interaction between humans and nature. The classic example of continuity, of its constituent lifeforms and subsystems. human prosperity derived from non-consuming use of nature’s services is our domestication and use of the horse and other animals for transport, soil PRINCIPLE 5 cultivation and general power for myriad uses. Intimate relationships to USE AND VALUE RENEWABLE RESOURCES domestic animals, such as the horse, also provide an empathetic context for AND SERVICES the extension of human ethical concerns to nature. On the other hand, in ‘Let nature take its course’ cultures where livestock are still prevailing symbols of meaning and wealth, the Renewable resources are those that are renewed and replaced by natural more fundamental renewable services provided by plants and soil life need to processes over reasonable periods without the need for major inputs of fossil be recognised, valued and used. fuels and mined minerals. In the language of business, renewable resources Classic permaculture designs using chickens or pigs to prepare ground for should be seen as our sources of income, while non-renewable resources planting bypass the use of tractors and rotary hoes, as well as artifcial fertiliser should be thought of as capital assets. Burning through our capital assets for and pesticides. In these systems, a modicum of management and fencing day-to-day living is unsustainable in anyone’s language. allows a more sophisticated use of livestock for multiple functions.

16 17 In both rich and poor communities, recognising the value of human as plants. The earthworm, like all living things, is a part of a web where the arenewablesourceoffertility–madesafebytheecologicalserviceof outputs of one are the inputs for another. microbes in a compost toilet – is one of the important and universal appli‐ Bill Mollison defned a pollutant as ‘an output of any system component that cations of this principle. is not being used productively by any other component of the system.’12 This Calling a clothesline a ‘solar clothes dryer’ is humorous because we recognise defnition encourages us to look for ways to minimise pollution and waste line drying of clothes as miles ahead of an electric tumble drier in the sustain‐ through designing systems to make use of all outputs. In response to questions about plagues of snails in gardens dominated by perennials, ability stakes. In many situations, we have been conned into using Mollison was in the habit of replying that there was not an excess of snails but unnecessary and complex gadgets for simple tasks. a defciency of ducks. The proverb ‘Let nature take its course’ reminds us of another aspect of this Similarly, plagues of grass and forest trees lead to devastation by bushfre in principle – that the pursuit of total control over nature through use of resources some regions, while plagues of herbivores overgraze others. Innovative and and technology is not only expensive, but can lead to a spiral of intervention creative ways to use these upwellings of abundance is one of the character‐ and degradation in biological systems that already represent the best balance istics of permaculture design. between productivity and diversity. The proverb ‘Waste not, want not’ reminds us that it is easy to be wasteful PRINCIPLE 6 when there is an abundance, but that this waste can be the cause of later PRODUCE NO WASTE hardship. This is highly relevant in a context of energy descent. ‘Waste not, want not’ ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ reminds us of the value of timely maintenance in ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ preventing waste and work involved in major repair and restoration eforts. Generations of cheap energy and resources have led to wasteful and Although this is far less exciting than fnding creative ways to use unwanted inefcient ways of living and land use. Produce no waste brings together abundance, maintenance of what we already have will be a huge and ongoing issue in an energy descent world. All structures and systems depreciate in traditional values of frugality and care for material goods, concern about value over time, and all ecological and sustainable human systems devote pollution and resource depletion, and the more radical perspective that sees resources to timely maintenance. wastes as resources and opportunities. By creatively redesigning how we provide for ourselves we can make large efciency gains with benefts for Recycling is the most overemphasised of the strategies for preventing waste. With recycling, an input of energy is needed to actively degrade a material to individuals, society and nature. its more basic constituents. For example, recycling a glass bottle requires The industrial processes that support modern life can be characterised by an energy to melt and remould the glass into a new bottle. Reusing the existing input-output model, in which the inputs are natural materials and energy, while bottle, or not buying the bottle in the frst place, are superior options. the outputs are useful things and services. However, when we step back from Afocusonreducingwastewithinahousehold,oranysystem,naturallyleads this process and take a long-term view, we can see all these ‘useful’ things us to see the waste all around us produced by others – the opportunities to end up as wastes (mostly in rubbish tips) and that even the most ethereal of reduce waste, and even meet most living needs from waste, are historically services required the degradation of energy and resources to wastes. This unprecedented. Whether we buy clothes from op shops, salvage waste from linear model needs to be replaced with a circular model to recycle essential the side of the road or get food from supermarket skips, we are Obtaining a materials in the way that nature does. This is symbolised by the earthworm yield from the waste of others. In the past only the most destitute made a living icon: earthworms live by consuming plant litter (wastes), converting them into from waste. Today we should acknowledge those who creatively reuse waste humus that improves the soil environment for itself, soil microorganisms, and as the very essence of living lightly on the earth. 18 19 PRINCIPLE 7 and a site-specifc character which the permaculture designer carries in their DESIGN FROM PATTERNS TO DETAILS head to make sense of a site and help organise appropriate design elements ‘Can’t see the forest for the trees’ into a workable system.

The frst six principles mostly consider systems from the bottom-up The proverb ‘Can’t see the forest for the trees’ reminds us that the details tend perspective of elements, organisms, and individuals. The second six principles to distract from our awareness of the nature of the system; the closer we get, tend to emphasise the patterns and relationships that emerge through system the less we are able to comprehend the larger picture. self-organisation and co-evolution. Using forests as design models for agriculture was the idea that initiated Modernity has tended to scramble any systemic common sense or intuition permaculture. Although many critiques and limitations to the forest model that can order the jumble of design possibilities and options that confront us need to be acknowledged, especially in temperate and semi-arid climates, it in all felds. This problem of focus on detailed complexity leads to the design remains a powerful example of pattern thinking that continues to inform of white elephants that are large and impressive but do not work, or permaculture and related concepts, such as forest gardening, agroforestry juggernauts that consume all our energy and resources while always and analogue forestry. threatening to run out of control. Complex systems that work tend to evolve While traditional land use systems provide many models of whole system from simple ones that work, so fnding the appropriate pattern for that design design, people embedded in cultures of place often need new experiences to is more important than understanding all the details of the elements in the help them to view their landscape and communities in new ways. In some of system. the pioneering Landcare projects in Australia in the 1980s, aerial overfights of By default, reductionist science and modern thinking attempt to understand their farms gave landholders both the big picture and the motivation to begin and redesign the world around us by pulling things apart to see ‘what makes serious work to address tree decline and associated land degradation them tick’. Systems thinking and many traditional ways of knowing and acting problems. From the air, the patterns of land ownership were less visible, while in the world start by zooming out to see the boundaries, inputs and outputs of the catchment patterns of nature stood out. the system. This big-picture perspective may leave the details a bit fuzzy but Similarly, the larger social and community context, rather than technical helps us see the commonality of patterns observable in nature and society. factors, can often determine whether a particular solution is a success. The list This allows us to better understand and appreciate what is already working of overseas development projects that have failed due to ignorance of these and how we might sensitively intervene as designers. larger-scale factors is extensive. The focus on context in holistic decision Sometimes we can apply a pattern from one context and scale to design in making13 is useful in starting with the big picture before diving down into the another. Pattern recognition is an outcome of the application of Principle 1 details. Observe and interact, and is the necessary precursor to the process of design. The spider on its web, with its concentric and radial design shows a clear PRINCIPLE 8 pattern even though the details always vary. This icon also evokes zone and INTEGRATE RATHER THAN SEGREGATE ‘Many hands make light work’ sector site planning – the best known and perhaps most widely applied aspect of permaculture design. Designating zones of intensity of use around an Integrate rather than segregate focuses on the relationships that draw activity centre, such as a farmhouse, helps place elements and subsystems. elements together in more closely integrated systems, and on improved Similarly, environmental factors of sun, wind, food, and fre can be considered methods of designing communities of plants, animals and people to gain in sectors around the same focal point. These sectors have both a bioregional benefts from these relationships. As Mollison puts it: ‘the purpose of a 20 21 functional and self-regulating design is to place elements in such a way that often control these weedy species without eliminating them and their values each serves the needs and accepts the products of other elements.’14 completely. In every aspect of nature, from the internal workings of organisms to whole In developing an awareness of the importance of relationships in the design of ecosystems, the connections between things are as important as the things self-reliant systems, two statements in permaculture literature and teaching themselves. But the industrial mindset of our culture often defaults to have been central: segregating elements as a design strategy, to deal with relationship complexity •Eachelementperformsmanyfunctions. and confict. This arises partly from our reductionist scientifc method that •Eachimportantfunctionissupportedbymanyelements. separates elements to study them in isolation; any consideration of how they The connections or relationships between elements of an integrated system work as parts of an integrated system is based on their nature in isolation. can vary greatly. Some may be predatory or competitive; others are co- This segregation is also a response to abundant energy. For example, the operative, or even symbiotic. All these types of relationships can be benefcial adverse impacts of early smokestack industrial cities were addressed by in building a strong integrated system or community, but permaculture zoning laws segregating residential housing from factories. Abundant energy strongly emphasises building mutually benefcial and symbiotic relationships. made commuting between home, work and other functions the default way of This is based on two beliefs: dealing with land use confict. Permaculture design seeks to reintegrate living •Wehaveaculturaldispositiontoseeandbelieveinpredatoryand and work functions, most dramatically by making our low-density residential competitive relationships, and discount co-operative and symbiotic landscapes agriculturally productive and reinvigorating the household and relationships, in nature and culture. community non-monetary economies to reduce dependence on commuting •Co-operativeandsymbioticrelationshipswillbemoreadaptiveina and transport. future of declining energy. The ability of the permaculture designer to create closely integrated systems Permaculture is part of a long tradition of concepts emphasising mutualistic depends on a broad understanding of the range of jigsaw-like lock-and-key and symbiotic relationships over competitive and predatory ones. Declining relationships that characterise ecological and social communities. As well as energy availability will shift the general perception of these concepts from deliberate design, we need to foresee, and allow for, efective ecological and romantic idealism to practical necessity. social relationships that develop from self-organisation and organic growth.

The icon of this principle can be seen as a top-down view of a circle of people, PRINCIPLE 9 or elements, forming an integrated system. The apparently empty hole USE SMALL AND SLOW SOLUTIONS represents the abstract whole system that both arises from the organisation of ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’ the elements and gives form and character. ‘Slow and steady wins the race’

By correct placement of plants, animals, earthworks and other infrastructure Systems should be designed to perform functions at the smallest scale that is it is possible to develop a higher degree of integration and self-regulation practical and energy-efcient for that function. Human scale and capacity without the need for constant human input in corrective management. For should be the yardstick for a humane, democratic and sustainable society. example, the scratching of poultry under forage forests can be used to harvest Use small and slow solutions refects the pioneering work of E. F. Schumacher litter to downslope garden systems. Herbaceous and woody weed species in who wrote the book (1973). Whenever we do anything of a animal pasture systems often contribute to soil improvement, biodiversity, and self-reliant nature – growing food, owner building, maintaining our health – we medicinal and other special uses. Appropriate rotationally grazed livestock can are making powerful and efective use of this principle. Likewise, purchasing 22 23 from small, local businesses or contributing to local community and environ‐ In crowded cities the apparent speed and convenience of cars stalls mental issues, is also applying this principle. movement and destroys amenity, while much smaller, slower and more energy Cheap energy works as a subsidy favouring large-scale centralised systems. efcient bicycles allow freer movement, without pollution and noise. Bicycles The end of cheap energy will shift the natural economies of scale in favour of can also be more efciently manufactured and assembled in smaller and more small systems but relative diferences in economies of scale between diferent local factories than the economies of scale necessary for the automotive functions will continue. For example, expensive energy for transport of raw industry. materials and fnished products will make household vegetable production The proverb ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’ is a reminder of one of competitive with large-scale monocultures, but backyard steel smelting is the disadvantages of size and excessive growth, while the proverb ‘Slow and unlikely to ever be a practical alternative, even if national steel industries may steady wins the race’ is one of many that encourages patience while refecting again become competitive with globalised ones. a common truth in nature and society. Although the ‘small is beautiful’ meme has been growing in status for decades, the idea that ‘slow’ is also cool has been slower to emerge. PRINCIPLE 10 However, backlash against the extreme mobility and speed in afuent USE AND VALUE DIVERSITY countries has led to movements such as ‘’ and ‘Slow Cities’. The ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ convenience and power from increased mobility and information technology The spinebill and the hummingbird both have long beaks and the capacity to has been a ‘Trojan horse’, destroying community and increasing energy hover – perfect for sipping nectar from long, narrow fowers. This remarkable demands. The communications and computer revolution has given new co-evolutionary adaptation between birds and fowers symbolises the special‐ impetus to the idea that speed is good, but again characteristic downsides are isation of form and function in nature. emerging such as the storms of spam which threaten the amenity of email and social media, creating storms of rumours and paranoia. The role and value of diversity in nature, culture and permaculture is complex, Many practical examples provide a more balanced view to counter the natural dynamic, and at times seemingly contradictory. Diversity needs to be seen as attraction of fast-moving processes and large-scale systems. For instance, the aresultofthebalanceandtensioninnature–betweenvarietyandpossibility fast response of crops to soluble fertilisers is often short-lived; manures, on the one hand, and productivity and power on the other. This principle, compost and natural rock minerals generally provide more sustained and along with several others, acts to balance the tendency in nature and society balanced plant nutrition. And a good result from a small amount of fertiliser for powerful elements to come to dominate systems. does not mean better results from more. It is now widely recognised that agricultural monocultures are a major cause In forestry, fast grown trees are often short-lived, while some apparently slow of vulnerability to pests and diseases, and therefore the widespread use of growing but more valuable species accelerate, and even surpass, the fast toxic chemicals and energy to control them. Polyculture is one of the most species in their second and third decades. A small plantation of thinned and important and widely recognised applications of this principle, reducing vulner‐ pruned trees can yield more total value than a large plantation without ability to pests, adverse seasons and market fuctuations. Polycultures15 also management. reduce reliance on market systems, and bolster household and community In animal nutrition, rapidly grown livestock fed concentrated nutrients are often self-reliance by providing a wider range of goods and services. However subject to more disease and have a lower life expectancy than more naturally polyculture is by no means the only application of this principle, and perma‐ raised animals. Overstocking is one of the most widespread causes of land culture designers acknowledge that the concept of diversity extends beyond degradation, and yet small numbers of managed livestock are benefcial, if not the species level. essential, to sustainable agriculture. 24 25 For instance, a diversity of diferent cultivated systems refects the unique Self-organised design in nature tends to increase the interface between nature of site, situation and cultural context, while a diversity of structures, diferent ecosystems. Edges are dynamic and productive parts of all natural both living and built, is also an important aspect of this principle. Temporal systems where exchange of materials and energy take place. For example, diversity manifests through examples such as forest trees providing diferent tidal estuaries are complex interface ecologies between land and sea that can ecological roles at diferent ages, and the successive planting of salad be seen as a great ecological trade market between these two great domains vegetables in home gardens to spread yields throughout the year. of life. The shallow water allows penetration of sunlight for algae and plant Diversity within species and populations, including genetic diversity, is also growth, breeding areas for fsh, and forage areas for wading and other birds. critical to the long-term stability of systems. This also extends to human The fresh water from catchment streams rides over the heavier saline water communities; the conservation of at least some of the great diversity of that pulses back and forth with the daily tides, redistributing nutrients and food languages and cultures on the planet is arguably as important as the conser‐ for the teeming and diverse life. vation of biodiversity. Within every terrestrial ecosystem, the living soil is a three-way edge or That said, the concept of biodiversity is not limited to wild species in natural interface between the non-living mineral earth, the atmosphere and the environments – it also encompasses the extraordinary diversity of cultivated biosphere. For all terrestrial life, including humanity, this is the most important crops and livestock varieties developed over the course of human agricultural edge of all. Only a limited number of hardy species can thrive in shallow, history, as well as wild species in novel ecological communities. compacted and poorly-drained soil, which has insufcient interface. Deep, well-drained and aerated soil is like a sponge, a great interface that supports Although inappropriate and destructive responses to energy descent will have productive and healthy plant life. knock-on impacts on both human and biodiversity, in the longer-term, energy descent will slow the economic engine of diversity destruction, and stimulate This principle works from the premise that the value and contribution of edges, new local and bioregional diversity. While many environmental and social as well as the marginal and invisible aspects of any system, should not only be movements only recognise prior biological and cultural diversity, permaculture recognised and conserved, but expanded to increase productivity and is just as actively engaged in creating new bioregional diversity from the stability. melting pot of nature and culture we have inherited. In garden design, keyhole designs increase the easily accessible edge of beds The proverb ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ embodies the common and optimise our observations and interactions. In aquaculture, increasing the sense understanding that diversity provides insurance against the vagaries of edge between feld and pond can increase the productivity of both. In nature and everyday life. broadacre farming, shelterbelt forestry increases the edge between feld and forest with gains in productivity and resilience for the whole farm. PRINCIPLE 11 USE EDGES AND VALUE THE MARGINAL In commercial precincts, shop frontage is the most valuable space. It can be ‘Don’t think you are on the right track just because increased by the construction of arcades and semi-public places that it is a well-beaten path’ encourage potential customers to linger. In rural development work, the focus on staple crops, prime agricultural land The icon of the sun coming up over the horizon with a river or road in the and clearly articulated aims and values within communities frequently leads to foreground shows us a world composed of edges, even if our cultural preoc‐ undervaluing, ignorance and destruction of wild species and marginal spaces, cupation with the feld rather than the hedgerow, the daylight rather than dusk, and the less visible needs of women, the disadvantaged and landless are often and majority politics rather than the creative fringe blinds us to what is coming undervalued or ignored. Similarly, in economic policy the focus of big business around the corner or over the horizon. 26 27 and thriving cities ignores the fact that these systems apply the fruits of past appropriate and desirable. Generational change is sometimes necessary for innovation, and that small business and smaller, less afuent places and radical ideas to be adopted but this can be accelerated through the infuence systems are the sources of future innovation. of school education on the home environment. For example, children bringing Eastern spiritual traditions and martial arts regard peripheral vision as a critical home trees they have grown in school nurseries can lead to successful estab‐ sense that connects us to the world, quite diferently to focused vision. lishment and care of valuable and long-lived trees, which might otherwise be Whatever the object of our attention, we need to remember that it is at the neglected or eaten by livestock. edge of any thing, system or medium that the most interesting events take Permaculture is about the durability of natural living systems and human place. Design that sees edge as an opportunity rather than a problem is more culture, but this durability depends on fexibility more than armoured rigidity. likely to be successful and adaptable. In the process, we discard the negative While all twelve principles make contributions the system characteristic of connotations associated with the word ‘marginal’ in order to see the value in resilience, this is the principle which contributes most explicitly. In any elements that only peripherally contribute to a function or system. particular system, the small-scale, fast, short-lived changes of the elements The proverb ‘Don’t think you are on the right track just because it is a well- actually contribute to higher-order system stability. Many stories and traditions beaten path’ reminds us that the most common, obvious and popular is not have the theme that within the greatest stability lie the seeds of change. necessarily the most signifcant or infuential. Science has shown us that the apparently solid and permanent is, at the cellular and atomic level, a seething mass of energy and change, similar to the PRINCIPLE 12 descriptions in various spiritual traditions. CREATIVELY USE AND RESPOND TO CHANGE ‘Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be’ We live and design in a historical context of turnover and change, in systems at multiple larger scales, and this generates an illusion of endless change with This principle has two threads: designing to make use of change in a no stability or sustainability. On the other hand, larger-scale and longer-lived deliberate and co-operative way, and creatively responding or adapting to systems such as nation states and institutions give an illusion of stability and large-scale system change which is beyond our control or infuence. permanence. Appreciating the dynamic balance between stability and The acceleration of ecological succession within cultivated systems is the change, rather than accepting these illusions at face value, contributes to most common expression of this principle in permaculture literature and design that is iterative rather than random or rigid. We need to accept that practice, and illustrates the frst thread. For example, the use of fast-growing current larger-scale systems around us are unsustainable, and must rapidly nitrogen-fxing trees to improve soil, and to provide shelter and shade for more design and develop new systems in the shadow of failing ones, rather than valuable slow-growing food trees, refects an ecological succession process seek to patch up or demolish existing ones. from pioneers to climax systems dominated by long-lived valuable tree crops. The progressive removal of some or all of the nitrogen-fxers for fodder and fuel The proverb ‘Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be’ as the tree crop system matures is part of the process. Seeds of pioneer suggests that understanding change is much more than the projection of species in the soil provide insurance to re-establish the system in the future, statistical trend lines. It also makes a cyclical link between this last design after natural disaster or land use change (e.g. to an annual crop phase). principle about change and the frst principle about observation. The adoption of successful innovation in communities often follows a pattern The butterfy or moth, which is the transformation of a caterpillar, is a symbol similar to ecological succession in nature. Visionary and obsessive individuals for the idea of adaptive change that is uplifting rather than threatening. often pioneer the solutions, but it generally requires more infuential and established leaders to take up the innovation before it is widely seen as

28 29 CONCLUSION REFERENCES

To provide for human needs, within ecological limits, requires a cultural 1B.Mollison&D.Holmgren,Permaculture One,Corgi1978.Facsimileeditionavailablefrom holmgren.com.au revolution greater than any of the tumultuous changes of the last century. 2MybookRetroSuburbia: The downshifter’s guide to a resilient future,MelliodoraPublishing Permaculture design and action over the last forty years has shown that 2018, provides much discussion on reintegrating the production/consumption cycle into the revolution to be complex and multi-faceted. While we continue to grapple with household economy, as well as practical strategies for implementation. the lessons of past successes and failures, the emerging energy descent 3Muchofmywritingoverthelasttwodecadeshasfocusedontheconceptof,andthe implications of, an energy descent future; see for instance ‘Futures framework for world will adopt many permaculture strategies and techniques as natural and RetroSuburbia’ (2016) available from retrosuburbia.com, Future Scenarios book and website obvious ways to live, within ecological limits, once real wealth declines. (2009), and other articles in David Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978-2018,(e-book, Melliodora Publishing). On the other hand, energy descent will demand real-time responses to novel 4H.T.Odum,Environment, Power and Society,JohnWiley1971infuencedmanykey situations, incremental adaptation of existing inappropriate systems, and environmental thinkers in the 1970s and was the frst listed reference in Permaculture One. Odum’s prodigious published output over the three decades since, as well as the work of his creative innovation applied to the most ordinary and small design problems. students and colleagues, has continued to inform my work. All this needs to be done without the big budgets and kudos associated with 5 David Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978-2018,(e-book)MelliodoraPublishing.‘The current industrial design innovation. development of the permaculture concept’ and ‘Energy and EMERGY: revaluing our world’ are especially relevant in explaining the infuence of Howard Odum’s work on permaculture. For a Permaculture design principles can never be a substitute for relevant practical recent evaluation and comparison of Odum’s EMERGY concept to other sustainability tools see Ecosystem Properties and Principles of Living Systems as Foundation for Sustainable experience and technical knowledge. However, they provide a framework for Agriculture: Critical reviews of environmental assessment tools, key fndings and questions the generation and evaluation of the site and situation specifc solutions from a course process, S. Doherty & T. Rydberg (eds) 2002. necessary to move beyond the limited successes of ‘sustainable devel‐ 6See‘Moneyvsfossilenergy:thebattleforcontroloftheworld’inDavid Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978-2018, (e-book) Melliodora Publishing. opment’ to a reunion of culture and nature. 7H.T.Odum&E.C.Odum,A Prosperous Way Down, University Press of Colorado 2001 8Foranexplorationoftheevolutionarylimitationsoftribalisminthemodernworldsee‘Tribal confict: proven pattern, dysfunctional inheritance’ in David Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978-2018. 9Foracurrentarticulationofthevalueofindigenouscultureandvalueinaeco-spiritualresponse to energy descent see T. Hartmann, Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking up to personal and global transformation, Harmony Books 1999. 10 This is a rephrasing of Lotka’s Maximum Power Principle. Howard Odum has suggested the Maximum Power Principle (or at least his EMERGY-based version of it) should be recognised as the fourth Energy Law. 11 See J. Lovelock, Gaia: A new look at life, Oxford University Press 1979. 12 B. Mollison, Permaculture: A designer’s manual, Tagari 1988. 13 Allan Savory pioneered this approach to design (see Holistic Management: A commonsense revolution to restore our environment 2016). More recently Dan Palmer has extended this thinking with a strong permaculture focus (see www.holisticdecisionmaking.org ) 14 B. Mollison, Permaculture: A designer’s manual, Tagari 1988. 15 Polyculture is the cultivation of many plant and/or animal species and varieties within an integrated system.

30 31 NOTES

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